Alfred Russel Wallace's Darwinian opposition to eugenics

Stack, D. (2024) Alfred Russel Wallace's Darwinian opposition to eugenics. Journal of the History of Biology. pp. 1-23. ISSN 1573-0387 doi: 10.1007/s10739-024-09792-6

Abstract/Summary

This article revisits the question of Alfred Russel Wallace’s relationship to eugenics and explores the basis of Wallace’s consistent rejection of attempts to label him a eugenicist. Whereas some scholars have identified an ‘ambiguity’ or ‘tension’ between Wallace’s hereditarianism and his libertarianism and maintained – despite Wallace’s statements to the contrary – that he was, in some senses, a eugenicist, this article argues that Wallace’s oft-repeated claims he was not a eugenicist are fully justified. By exploring Wallace’s relationship with Francis Galton using a hitherto neglected correspondence between the two concerning the establishment of a proposed laboratory, and Wallace’s criticism of non-Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms in the writings of William Bateson and others, this article situates Wallace’s opposition to eugenics in his broader ultra-Darwinian agenda. The article concludes by arguing that it is misleading to characterise Wallace as a eugenicist, and that doing so tends to obscure and confuse our understanding of his thought.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/119503
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Humanities > History
Publisher	Elsevier
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